A Bridge from Darkness to Light: Thirteen Young Photographers Explore Their Afghanistan

By Bill Wright

In 2006, Texas historian and photographer Bill Wright traveled to Afghanistan to teach a course—sponsored by the Afghan NGO ASCHIANA, which seeks to support working children and their families—on digital photography to young Afghans living in Kabul. In this illuminating, visually captivating book, Wright records his personal journey and experiences with a group of students ranging from ages 12 to the early 20s. The students’ photographs capture daily life in the Afghan capital, from traditional street markets to a modern shipping center, from shepherds to musicians to laborers, from infants to the elderly. As they record their world, these junior photographers provide a poignant portrait of what life is like for young people in a war zone, and demonstrate an unquenchable talent and spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wings Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781609403355

Book preview

A Bridge from Darkness to Light

In the spring of 2006 I received an unexpected email from the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Public Affairs Officer there, J.B. Leedy, wanted to know if I was planning a trip to the area in the near future. The message continued by saying that the embassy could not officially invite anyone to Afghanistan as it was in a war zone, but should I be interested in coming anyway, she wondered if I would volunteer to teach a short course in digital photography sponsored by ASCHIANA, an Afghan non-government organization (NGO). The project would also be supported by the United States Department of State. ASCHIANA was dedicated to providing Afghanistan’s street-working children who sold gum and washed auto windshields on the streets of Kabul with skill sets for a brighter future. The organization maintains seven campuses around the Kabul area and works with over 3000 students.

The prospect of a public-service photography project in Afghanistan made the decision easy. Already on my short list of countries to visit, Afghanistan is indisputably fascinating. Occupying a central position in the geography of central Asia, it has been a focus of conflict for centuries. Over two thousand years ago, Kandahar was a key stop on the ancient Silk Road linking Asia from the eastern edge of the continent to the west. In the early part of the 19th century, Afghanistan was in the middle of the Great Game between westward-expanding Russia and British-occupied Kashmir. Russian interest never flagged and on December 27, 1979, Soviets invaded Afghanistan, streaming through the famous Khyber Pass and occupying the country until they were defeated in April 1989 by the resilient Afghans with American assistance. The vacuum left by the Russians culminated in a savage civil war that brought the Taliban to power. They in turn were subdued but not eliminated by the United States in 2001.

By 2006, with American interest shifting to Iraq, the resurgent Taliban were again on the move. They threatened to retake control of the country and re-impose their severe Sharia religious law, limiting the rights of women and punishing all who deviated from their strict interpretation of the Koran. I figured this opportunity to help young Afghans might be my last chance to see some of their homeland.

I wasted no time in contacting ASCHIANA, the NGO that caused J. B. Leedy to seek me out. With the help of an Australian volunteer, we devised a program that could, within the space of a week, give the students a working knowledge of digital photography. [See their website: http://www.aschiana.com] Though friends and family urged me not to go, I felt Kabul was relatively safe at the moment. What’s more, the opportunity to visit a land so steeped in ancient tribal customs, to aid young people who had known too much war, was irresistible.

On Friday, July 21, I headed towards the Abilene Regional Airport with digital point and shoot cameras and other supplies donated by friends in Abilene and across the country. A short American Eagle hop to Dallas was the first of four connecting flights for the long 26-hour trip to Kabul.

Fortunately, I was able to upgrade to business class for the Dallas to Zurich leg and spent the time reviewing my scant knowledge of Kabul and working on my course curriculum. The students I would be working with had already participated in some introductory photographic training and some even had experience developing their own photos and exhibiting. However they had no experience with digital photography so I knew I had to begin with the most basic information that would enable the students to operate the digital cameras and, as the days passed, introduce various concepts in response to the work they turned in after the previous day’s shoot. As our flight rushed eastward toward nightfall, I did my best to put my notes aside and get my mind into sleep mode. I knew I wanted to arrive as rested as possible because my plan was to start the instruction with intensity and maintain it for the week I would be there.

I arrived Saturday, at 7:50 a.m. Zurich time a little bleary eyed from the overnight flight. The Zurich airport was clean and modern and after a wait till 12:45 p.m., I boarded an American Flight operated by British Airways to Dubai, one of the seven United Arab Emirates. Looking at the map it showed a direct route across southeastern Europe, then Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and on to the Gulf. We arrived in Dubai at 8:45 p.m. I wondered if the flight made detours across the airspace of some of those countries but I never found out. After a cab ride to the adjacent emirate of Sharjah, at 9:25 a.m. Sunday morning, I boarded an Arab Air flight G90283 to Kabul.

I found an aisle seat next to a Pashtun man from